Harvey Brown enlisted on August 5th 1942 as a private in the Enlisted Reserve Corps of the United States Army. After attending pilot training at Army fields like: Maxwell Field in Alabama, Greenville Army Flight School in Mississippi, and Advanced Flight School at Freeman Field in Indiana. Harvey was finally a pilot. He was shipped to Davis-Monthan Field in Tucson, Arizona. At Davis-Monthan, he was assigned to a crew as a co-pilot on a B-24 Liberator.
Crew training was long, tiring work for all members of the crew. Each had already received training in his specialty: Pilot, Co-Pilot, Navigator, Bombardier, Gunners, Flight Engineer and Radio Operator. Now through hours of continuous training and flight time, they were formed into a cohesive crew. The total training time was around 100 hours. In this relatively short period of time the crew had to learn to work together in combat situations. Each had to learn the capabilities and limitations of the other. Crew SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) were formed and learned by each member of the crew.
There was flying. Hours and hours of flying. At high altitudes, at lower altitudes, formation flying, long distance navigation flights and more. A combat flight crew can't train for air combat on the ground. They must go up where the flight will be to train.
Eventually, the training did end. The crew was now ready to go overseas (and maybe a few were looking forward to getting there). They departed
for Topeka Army Air Field in Topeka, Kansas where the Pilot, Charlie Trumper
signed for a Brand New B-24H,
SN 42-51090.
They finally had a plane.....
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